Real Estate Software Vendors Should Join the Small Business Web

There are two fundamental problems with most real estate software applications…

1. Often times features are added in an attempt to make the core product ‘do more’ than it was originally designed to do. Such as an IDX adding an email auto-responder system. These attempts often result in limited functionality of the add-on, serious software bloat, and questionable increased benefits.

Why can’t a few leading vendors get together and agree upon a base open API from which to build inter-connectivity? Wouldn’t it be better for an IDX vendor just to focus on making their IDX product better, instead of having to cobble together a drip email campaign as well? I know agents would love to eliminate duplicate entry of data and also be able to choose the best service in each product category, instead of having to struggle with frustrations of one solution trying to be all things.

Instead of reinventing the wheel, I suggest real estate software vendors work with to integrate better with existing solutions. It’s actually sad to see the doesn’t even have a ‘real estate’ category on its directory. Real Estate has to be one of the largest small business industries in the country. Almost every single licensee is a small business (save a few Redfin and ZipRealty employees) in and of themselves. Heck, there could even be a Real Estate Business Web in and of itself.

Wouldn’t it be better (for everyone) if software solutions could just focus on what they do best? If you’re an IDX company, make the best damn IDX ever and integrate the API of some CRM solutions to give your clients options. There are already many killer email marketing services, why does my transaction manager try to recreate that wheel? I’m sure these vendors would operate more efficiently by focusing on their core product. This may even save them money (and there customers too) by having less staff and less development of ‘add-on’ bloat.

Here is the Small Business Web’s purpose statement:

“The Small Business Web is a movement to bring together like-minded, customer-obsessed software companies to integrate our respective products and make life easier for small businesses. While there are many products available for small business owners on the Web, the approach we’re taking is to use each others APIs to provide a high-level of integration between these applications and create a more seamless experience for our customers.”

Here is a video illustrating the Small Business Web’s benefits:

Who will be the first real estate software vendor to adopt the Small Business Web open API? or am I dreaming again?

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1 Comment

Brad, I agree with your sentiment 100%. In fact, I think it’s the number 1 issue a real estate professional faces when they decide to “go tech”. My presentation at RETechSouth focused on helping agents think through the day to day maintenance and integration of all the shiny new tech tools they have available. In fact, some of the “free” tools can end up costing you more in lost time and productivity and ultimately business.

You are referring to what is commonly called Service Oriented Architecture (or SOA) where systems present data and functions through discoverable APIs. Did I just geek out on you there? 😉 And I agree that the RE industry has lagged many industries in adopting this.

I am the new chairman of the Research and Development workgroup within RESO (Real Estate Standards Organization) which is responsible for the governance of RETS (Real Estate Transaction Standard). And in that role I am totally focused on evolving the RE industry technology standards so that tech vendors can work more collaboratively without reinventing the wheel. We are an entirely volunteer group that desperately needs more “customer” voices, such as yourself (hint hint). To keep up with our progress you can follow us on twitter at http://www.twitter.com/resord. We are also hosting an idea discussion session at Midyear in two weeks on May 13th at 1pm.